A Royal Enfield forum for the people

[Tim]

Hey Narada,

Welcome to the board!

I quickly scrolled through some of your post on the other forum. This is a close group I like to know who is dropping in. Any way I noticed your paint matched hard bags. I wrestled with stocking them for years but in the end decided against it.

Did they mount well, do you love them?

[gashousegorilla]

Hey , what's up Narada ! Glad your HERE .

[Narada]

Hi guys, glad to be here in the uncensored free speech (within reason) forum!

Thanks for asking about my panniers Tim, let me tell you all about them...

My hard panniers came from "Blue Garage" in India a few years ago. I forget the price now, but they were pretty affordable, and what made them especially nice was that they came in any stock RE color with custom made mounting brackets just for my bike!

Of course, that meant I got some hammered out pieces of flatbar that were simaler to what I needed, but desperately in need of further"adjustment", so I cut, bent, and welded to get them right, while taking into consideration the 1/2" offset or mis-alignment of my upper shock bolt bungs (which came stock from RE, no extra charge).

After some glossy black Krylon, and a short test ride, I realized I also needed rear braces to keep the panniers from waveing in the breeze, so I fabbed a couple from 3/8" bar stock, thereby emulating the bars of my Saree Guard (especially obtained from New Delhi), which now go together nicely. A little more glossy black Krylon and some stainless steel fasteners finished them out!

I do like these panniers alot, as cheap as they were, they're probably the best I'll ever get, but I wouldn't mind changing them up for my old CMW / RE soft leather bags again at some point. Just for a change...

I have seen pairs of chrome bars on European sites, which mount along the tops of the fenders and those RE soft panniers hang on them. I want a pair of those, but I've only seen them on the European sites.

They are even official RE parts, not available in the US though! I've emailed various vendors enquiring as to why I can't buy them, but get no reply. Apparently it's some rule or law that Yankees can't have them.. I don't know, I finally gave up. If you can get me a pair, I'll buy 'em, but they have to be the chrome ones!

Lastly, you may not have noticed, but I also fabbed up a rear deck / rack out of 1/2"X1/2"X1/8" angle iron which bolts right to the stock pillion seat frame! It is pretty handy for camping gear or my large tail bag for road trips, and is easily removable when not needed. I would post a picture or two if I knew how...any suggestions?

[Narada]

Picture post testing... 1 2 3...sybilus sybilus sybilus...

[Tim]

They definitely look nice! Your after purchase mods in order to make them fit correctly was the source of my hesitation. When a supplier from another culture tells me it "fits" that holds no weight. In some cultures it fits means yes, it's possible to make it fit without redesigning the piece. In America it fits means I can pull it out of the box and mount it with the supplied hardware. Most people will lose their mind if they drop $250 on bags and then have to fabricate brackets for bags that "fit". Even the factory panniers on the Iron Barrel models don't technically fit, each set is tweaked to fit the bike. There are just too many variations in production to make 1 jig for half a million bikes.

I want to love these but my brain won't let me. They look like they could be factory and that's the problem. The purist in me is like those look factory but I know there are not, those are BMW bags aaaaahhhhh! If they were black bags on a maroon bike I could say, "cool mod" and move on with my day.

Official factory bag mounts for the Classic. The best selling accessory in the history of motorcycle accessories isn't available in the U.S.? Get outta town! You have to send me a link. It's interesting that those are available but they totally redesigned them for the Pegasus.

[Narada]

Lucky for me I'm a little new at this motorcycle thing, so I have no preconcieved notion of what bag goes with what bike, lol! When I bought mine I just thought they looked cool and I bought them. What I will say is those bags are readily available on ebay and now strike me as cheap looking when I think of them critically. Other times I like them alot. They also are a bit small for the cargo hauling I like, so there's another strike against them.

One reason I got them is I couldn't stand my RE soft bags hanging crooked from the mudguards any longer! I could make some sort of hangers myself, but just got stuck on why none were available...I didn't want some home made crap on my bike!

Then I found what has now become the chrome unicorns! There were ads for these in Europe a year or two ago, I can't find them now. Here is a picture of them, and a link to the source of picture. If you look closely the unicorn is hiding behind the saddlebag. Those are the pannier supports I want. My feeling is they're no longer available.

https://www.speedmotoservices.com/acces ... x=imagenkl

Downloaded picture wouldn't attach. Hopefully this link will work.

[Narada]

These are also an alternative from the French site. Not shiney chrome, but should hold bags nicely. I've emailed them as to availability, just not holding my breath. None have replied to me yet...

https://www.speedmotoservices.com/acces ... x=imagenkl

[gashousegorilla]

Those hard bags could not look anymore perfect on that bike... awesome job.

[DanFromVegas]

I love those bags! The way they follow the fender (mudguard) line instead of looking like some generic box that was made to carry wine bottles or medical samples. And the matching color!

[Narada]

Thanks guys for the support! I actually did put quite a bit of effort into properly locating those panniers on the bike so I appreciate your noticing!

Some good news...that French website did get back to me and I have now ordered the black soft bag supports. I also asked about the chrome ones at the same time. I never could understand why no supports were offered in the US for these bags. You can hang them from the mudguard stays but they always slump off one way or the other.

What I'm thinking is to have both soft and hard bags (that hang right), then use which ever option I prefer, depending on where I'm going.
If I could get the chrome ones, they might just look really nice on my Chrome 500 too!

Tim, if you do decide to stock a couple of these, and can get chrome, I will try to control my point & click finger long enough to order a chrome set from you. I don't know how many would sell, but I think they should be a great part to offer!

Now, may I offer just one more pannier pic?